A ROCHDALE mother is 'frantic with worry' after failing to make contact with her husband who is trapped in war-torn south Lebanon.

WAITING, hoping, praying... Lindsay Rammal and her son Nadime have not been able to make contact with her husband Abbaz who is visiting his family in an area of Lebanon which has suffered bomb attacks.

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A ROCHDALE mother is 'frantic with worry' after failing to make contact with her husband who is trapped in war-torn south Lebanon.

As the bombing continued over the weekend, Lindsay Rammal made several desperate attempts to get news of her 42-year-old husband, Abbaz.

Mrs Rammal and her 13-year-old son, Nadime, have not been able to get in touch despite repeated calls to his mobile phone.

The former nurse, of Kirklees Road, Castleton, said: "We don't know if he's dead or alive."

Mr Rammal, an electrician, returned to his homeland on 28 June to visit his sick father.

His wife said: "His father is very ill and Abbaz wanted to see him. The last we heard was from a cousin in London, who reached his sister and said he was alive, but that was more than two weeks ago.

"Since then we've heard nothing."

Her husband's family home is in Dowier, a village in the thick of the bombing.

She said: "I rang the Lebanese Embassy, who advised me to get in touch with a TV station in Beirut as they would send out a message to him. But the television station has been blown up.

"Each time we ring his mobile it's switched off. With everything happening and his father being ill, I can understand he might not want to leave them, even if he could get out.

"But he would let us know - he is very close to Nadime - and if he could contact us, he would."

Mrs Rammal, who was born and raised in Castleton, met her husband while working as a nurse in Saudi Arabia. After marrying in England they worked in Egypt for two years, then spent several months in Iraq.

She said: "We also lived in Lebanon for eight months. I came back to England with Nadime when he was almost six, although Abbaz stayed working there for a further three years. Then he got a job in London, but comes regularly to see us."

Mrs Rammal said she and her son, a pupil at Matthew Moss High School, were unable to tear themselves away from the TV in a bid to get up-to-date information about the situation in Lebanon.

"I'm also glued to it looking for Abbaz and can't eat or sleep for worring.

"Lebanon was such a beautiful country. We left after the main power station in Beirut was bombed. Before we left we would sit on our balcony watching the shells falling in the distance."

The 53-year-old, who is secretary of Kirklee Tenants' and Residents' Association, added: "I don't know what else I can do."